Most people have one: that room in the house that they wish was just a little larger. What many don’t realize is that with a little work and some TLC, they could have exactly what they’re looking for.

Here, Lowe’s offers 10 designer tricks to help you make any room look larger:

1. For the illusion of a larger room, use a color scheme that is light rather than bright or dark. Pastels, neutrals and white are all color possibilities.

2. Use a monochromatic color scheme on the furniture, rugs and walls. Select different shades and textures of your single color.

3. Lighting is a key element in opening up a space. Recessed spot lighting is visually appealing and is perfect for a small space. A torchiere light is great for bouncing light off of the ceiling and back down on the room. Skylights and solar tubes are natural alternatives for adding light to a room.

4. Limit the number of accessories to avoid the cluttered feeling.

5. The floor and the ceiling are the fifth and sixth walls of every room. A light-colored flooring such as light oak or a light-colored carpet will make the room appear brighter and more open. The same applies to the ceiling—use a light color or white to “open up” the space above.

6. Increase the appearance of the size of the room by adding wall mirrors. They not only reflect images, they reflect light and color. Be a little daring! Use mirror tiles to mirror an entire wall. Your room will appear to double in size.

7. Don’t place too many pieces of furniture in a small space. A love seat may work better than a full-size sofa depending on the size and shape of the room. Add two medium-sized chairs or two small wood chairs. Place the chairs closer to the wall and then pull them into the area when additional seating is needed.

8. Add paintings or prints to the walls. One large painting works better than a group of small paintings.

9. The visual balance of a room is also important. A large, brightly colored element can overwhelm a room and decrease the appearance of space.

10. A glass table, whether it is a dining, coffee or end table, will keep the appearance of an open and free space.

clear skies,

doug reynolds

www.SellWithDoug.com

I made a video to give you a sense of what I saw. See below or HERE. What do you think? Have you ever heard of Quad-Lock before? (see 4:52 on the video for Quad-Lock)

]]> http://housingstorm.com/2010/04/what-does-an-energy-efficient-house-look-like/feed/ 0 http://housingstorm.com/2010/04/green-building-grows-from-infant-to-toddler/ http://housingstorm.com/2010/04/green-building-grows-from-infant-to-toddler/#comments Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:07:17 +0000 Patrick Duffy http://housingstorm.com/?p=5505 Continue reading →]]> When green home building standards and practices were first introduced to the residential development industry, there seemed to be that nagging question of, “Is this just another short-lived trend?” Undoubtedly plagued by bad memories of well-meaning technologies of the early 1990s that didn’t perform as planned and disrupted production schedules, it’s easy to see why many of the nation’s builders wanted to see just how serious their buyers were about green building before re-engineering their designs – and their companies – to compete.

Now that green building is leaving its infancy and becoming a full-fledged (and often cranky) toddler, although its support among both the public and the industry remains high, some solid pros and cons are beginning to emerge. According to the 4^th Annual Green Building Survey by the law firm Allen Matkins, Construction Technologies Group (CTG) and Green Building Insider, support among over 1,600 design and construction professionals for green building remains extremely high at 92%. Not surprisingly, the growth of the global green building sector is on a tear, totaling over $500 billion in 2009 and expected to continue growing at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 110% between now and 2015.

And yet as these same professionals now have a few projects completed, they’ve come to realize that accompanying the greater complexity of green building is the perception of more construction risk. To counteract that risk, some important strategies have emerged, including retaining specialized consultants (including those certified by groups such as the U.S. Green Building Counsel’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED), measuring and re-commissioning existing systems to maximize energy savings, regular testing and, to tie it all together, shifting the risks through insurance contracts.

Interestingly, support for LEED continues to fall, dropping by nearly 5% to just 62% in 2009 as builders push back against the costs for certification while other programs such as the Green Point Rated program from Built it Green manage to better target residential projects — especially those in the multi-family arena. But while the specific certification programs evolve, the reasons for building green remain the same, with nearly 98% of respondents seeking to save on energy given that such costs are expected to continue rising. In addition, 88% of respondents also report that they’re more likely to include energy savings and sustainable building elements in future projects – an impressive 14-point bump from the previous year.

One new wrinkle from the green building evolution is the green lease, in which tenants are also held responsible to ensure savings from the original investment by the builder. Such leases could include everything from environmentally sensitive paints and cleaning supplies to waste recycling and ensuring that all repairs and maintenance are completed to adhere to the original plans. Finally, although just over 40% of respondents view the issue of carbon offsets as an important strategy, until a national program is instituted the purchase of offsets will likely remain stuck at about 7%.

From the point of view of McGraw-Hills Construction’s Smart Market Reports from 2006 and 2008, green homes have become a crucial market differentiator and continued to grow in number even as the overall new home market declined. By 2013, the reports predicted the residential green building market to range from $40 to $70 billion as interest among potential homebuyers now spans all income levels.

For younger generations such as the Echo Boomers, building green is now an expectation strongly related to both better health and saving on energy and other operating costs. And even when remodeling existing homes, homeowners are increasingly spending more on green features as opposed to those which merely increase comfort or improve aesthetics.

So what is the greatest obstacle preventing green building making that leap from toddler to adolescent? In many markets, there still aren’t enough builders doing it.

Uncle Sam has embraced cash-for-keys as part of its initiative to streamline the short sale process. Can we expect to see many more successful short sales soon?

Stop your stalling,
And just give me more than you should,
Before we’re all in
The same mess I knew we would;
I will not call you,
‘Cos I know he’ll answer the phone;
There’s something stunning
About the way we lie till it’s gone.

Snow Patrol — Steal

Now that the US taxpayer is absorbing the losses from the US housing and mortgage markets, someone in Washington has decided it is more cost effective to pay everyone off at short sale rather than forcing foreclosure. More transactions may be coming if short sales are expedited, and that is probably a good thing.

Program Will Pay Homeowners to Sell at a Loss

By DAVID STREITFELD
Published: March 7, 2010

In an effort to end the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their homes. Now it will take a new approach: paying some of them to leave.

This latest program, which will allow owners to sell for less than they owe and will give them a little cash to speed them on their way, is one of the administration’s most aggressive attempts to grapple with a problem that has defied solutions.

More than five million households are behind on their mortgages and risk foreclosure. The government’s $75 billion mortgage modification plan has helped only a small slice of them. Consumer advocates, economists and even some banking industry representatives say much more needs to be done.

For the administration, there is also the concern that millions of foreclosures could delay or even reverse the economy’s tentative recovery — the last thing it wants in an election year.

Taking effect on April 5, the program could encourage hundreds of thousands of delinquent borrowers who have not been rescued by the loan modification program to shed their houses through a process known as a short sale, in which property is sold for less than the balance of the mortgage. Lenders will be compelled to accept that arrangement, forgiving the difference between the market price of the property and what they are owed.

“We want to streamline and standardize the short sale process to make it much easier on the borrower and much easier on the lender,” said Seth Wheeler, a Treasury senior adviser.

Reach for your wallet; the government is streamlining….

Cash for Keys from Uncle Sam

To bring the various parties to the table — the homeowner, the lender that services the loan, the investor that owns the loan, the bank that owns the second mortgage on the property — the government intends to spread its cash around.

Under the new program, the servicing bank, as with all modifications, will get $1,000. Another $1,000 can go toward a second loan, if there is one. And for the first time the government would give money to the distressed homeowners themselves. They will get $1,500 in “relocation assistance.”

There it is; Uncle Sam is paying people to pack their stuff and get out of the taxpayer’s property — and it is the taxpayer’s property given that the taxpayer is the only party putting money into the deal to pay everyone off. Didn’t we all know it would come to this? How much longer before Uncle Sam gives up on this loan modification crap and cranks up the foreclosure meat grinder?

The owners of second mortgages must be thrilled with this program. The second mortgage is worth practically nothing when the property is underwater. Investors who expect little or nothing are getting a significant payout from Uncle Sam. I assume Goldman Sachs bought every underwater second mortgage in the country leading up to this policy change.

Cutting out flippers

This program will succeed by cutting out the cash market at foreclosure. Short sales are resales and subject to financing, so prices are higher and loss recoveries greater — at least in theory.

Should the incentives prove successful, the short sales program could have multiple benefits. For the investment pools that own many home loans, there is the prospect of getting more money with a sale than with a foreclosure.

For the borrowers, there is the likelihood of suffering less damage to credit ratings. And as part of the transaction, they will get the lender’s assurance that they will not later be sued for an unpaid mortgage balance.

For communities, the plan will mean fewer empty foreclosed houses waiting to be sold by banks. By some estimates, as many as half of all foreclosed properties are ransacked by either the former owners or vandals, which depresses the value of the property further and pulls down the value of neighboring homes.

I think the statement about being better for a borrower’s credit rating is dubious. How much better is it to stiff a lender for $50,000 if you do it on good terms? Short sales often come with some kind of long-term repayment agreement or acknowledgment of debt. Rarely is it a clean break.

The last statement about benefiting the community is true. Empty houses serve no one. A short sale keeps the property occupied and maintained and keeps continuity in neighborhoods and communities.

With the large amount of distressed inventory, expediting short sales will become a necessity. If every distressed property goes through foreclosure and remains empty for a significant time, everyone involved loses, except perhaps the trustee sale flippers who will be asked to clean up the mess.

Perhaps the biggest change today is that, on average, new homes are getting smaller after nearly doubling during the previous generation. According to a 2009 survey by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), 58% of potential buyers reported a preference for smaller homes with high-quality materials, and between 2007 and 2009 the desired square footage shrank from 2426 to 2292 square feet.

Although many production builders are getting ahead of this trend by ditching the status-seeking sweeping staircases, grand foyers and attention-getting fireplaces, Marianne Cusato, designer of the famous “Katrina Cottages” of 300 to 1800 square feet now available at Lowe’s, has introduced a “New Economy Home” for a larger audience.

At a reasonable 1676 square feet, Cusato’s design offers a flexible downstairs suite that can morph from a family room or office into a rental unit or a downstairs master bedroom in conjunction with an owner’s needs (and even, as she suggests, allow a divorced couple to share the house if finances are tight). What’s missing from her plans, of course, are features which might look nice but add little to a home’s utility value, such as long hallways, giant master suites, media rooms and that now-dated scion of the early 2000s – the Roman tub.

One key demographic group with design as a primary component of a home buying decision is Generation Y. While a large portion of this group may currently be doubled up with roommates in apartments or have temporarily boomeranged to live back with their parents, when the economy rebounds they’ll want their first taste of freedom in both stylish rentals and for-sale homes.

Importantly, for this cohort less is more, meaning clean lines and contemporary styling accented with bold colors against neutral backgrounds. Since both the Generation X and Y value social opportunities, builders can do a lot by properly merchandising small spaces for casual entertaining with the use of game tables and flat screen TVs.

Although the kitchen still remains the activity hub for most parties, the best designs create interactive flow with an adjacent family room by substituting breakfast bars for walls. And with outdoor spaces such as patios, yards and balconies increasingly becoming part of the overall entertaining experience, they should not only interact well with traditional interior rooms but also be easy to furnish.

For Gen Y, Gen X and Baby Boomers combined, they’re also increasingly demanding home offices or dedicated workspaces in lofts and alcoves, yet desire homes which require little maintenance and offer flexibility for a multi-tasking lifestyle.

And, while numerous surveys have demonstrated that buyers don’t want to pay more for green features, they still want to see them at least offered as an option (and one way to show a builder’s green credibility is to always offer appliances with an Energy Star label).

In the end, today’s more sophisticated buyers seem to be bringing a list of opposites to the sales table: homes that are both social hubs and sanctuaries, homes that are green but don’t cost any more, and homes that are well-designed but exclude pricey upgrades and options they can’t recoup when they re-sell. But for those builders who step up to that plate and are willing to swing, future riches may indeed await.

At the most recent Gold Nugget Awards in San Francisco, the one common element among the award-winning projects was not only offering attractive exteriors and an efficient use of space, but also incorporating designs into the scale and look of the surrounding area.

For example, Barry Berkus’ Yarnolani Court won Project of the Year for what is in fact a small, five-unit infill project in Santa Barbara not just due to its LEED Platinum certification and its unique way of combining interior and exterior spaces, but also due to its attention to detail. While remaining true to the city’s Spanish architectural traditions, Yarnolani Court offers a slimmed-down scale to accommodate less than 2,000 square feet of living space while still paying attention to details such as cantilevered wooden alcoves, wrought iron railings and arched windows and doors.

In areas throughout the Sun Belt, smaller interior square footages can be balanced by a more artistic approach to bringing in the outside. That’s how a project such as Shapell’s Grand Award for its Belmaison in San Jose can be recognized for its use of double courtyards that allow natural light and passive ventilation to maximize the impact of what nature has to offer on a very narrow lot.

For a high-density urban development, paying attention to the scale of the surrounding neighborhood is critical. In the case of Grand Award-winner The Renaissance by Signature Properties in the City of Concord (a suburb of the Bay Area), connections to the immediate area – including transit stops – are enabled by a scale friendly to pedestrians and enhanced by exterior articulations that underscore the high quality of materials used. The result is a project that won’t seem trendy five years from now and has become an integral part in the city’s revitalization plans.

Even for an infill project in an existing suburban area, sensitivity to local history and architectural norms is critical. When SummerHill Homes built Lane Woods in Menlo Park — once known as a weekend getaway for residents of San Francisco and San Jose – the builder preserved 96 existing trees, oriented lots around a central park, and offered up traditional wood siding, large porches and balconies. Suddenly a project with just 32 homes could lay claim to its own version of an ‘old growth’ neighborhood while still providing the environmental and technological benefits of new construction.

As builders – and their buyers – continue to embrace the advantages of green building, even small changes can make a difference. For example, porous pavers can assist water run-off during storms while re-charging underground aquifers, roof-integrated solar panels can help reduce power bills while minimizing the aesthetic impact to the exterior look, and specially treated paint applied to just about any surface can act as an insulator capable of cutting energy use by 20% to 40%.

On a national scale, the days of the ever-present stucco home may even be numbered. According to a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive, 59% of homeowners with a preference for siding would choose brick, followed distantly by vinyl with 37%, stucco with 19%, fiber cement/composite with 14% and ‘other,’ with 11%. It looks like more sophisticated and traditional exteriors – those which win awards — are here to stay.

• Paint a room to renew it. Apply new interior paint to brighten up your home and brush away the winter blues. Hot colors for 2010 include bright or warm yellows, lavender for bedrooms and slate or charcoal grays to replace tan and beige tones as popular neutrals.
• Front and center. While you’re painting, remember the front door. A fresh coat of paint or polyurethane on a fiberglass or wood entry door can refresh the new look and luster. Consider whether the door still closes properly or if you can feel air leaks around it. If so, it’s time to replace the weather stripping or the door itself. Cheers to you and your home!

5 Home Remodeling Trends for the New Year

Remodeling and decorating trends in 2010 are likely to reflect the fact that many home owners are settling in for the long haul.

Here are some ideas for updating homes and gardens from decorators and leading real estate practitioners:

• Environmentally sensitive furniture. Natural fibers, sustainable woods, and recycled products are key to attracting environmentally concerned buyers.
• Classic neutral colors. Deep gray browns and gray blues, muted beige, and chalky white will be particularly popular shades, Pittsburgh Paints predicts.
• Backyard gardens. First Lady Michelle Obama led the way in 2009 when she installed one at the White House.
• Backyard living. Wood-deck additions offer an 80.6 percent payback, according to the annual Cost vs. Value Report from Remodeling magazine and REALTOR® magazine. Simple fire pits and outdoor fireplaces also will be popular, trend-watchers say.
• Made in America. As more people feel compelled to support local employment, U.S. manufactured products and antiques will become more popular.

Selling Your Home During the Holidays

When deciding whether to decorate or not, take the demographics of your neighbourhood into account.  If the majority of home owners in your area do not celebrate the holidays, you may want to follow their lead and not decorate your home for the festive season either.

Here are some things to take into account if you are going to decorate:

• Less is definitely more.  Combat clutter by keeping your holiday decor to a minimum and choosing classic, tasteful pieces.
• Avoid displaying holiday collections.  I happened to mention one year that I like nutcrackers.  I didn’t even own one at the time, but now, 10 years later, I would have to guess that there are close to 80 of those little fellows standing guard in my home during the holidays.  If I were selling, I’d want people to look at my home, not my collection.
• Decorations should be in good condition.  This is not the year to bring out Grandma’s tattered Santa Claus or Rudolph with the missing nose.  Let them hibernate.
• Use an artificial tree for this year.  You can place some pine boughs in a large bowl and dress it up with a few pine cones and holiday balls.  You’ll still get that real Christmas tree scent without the mess.
• Never leave tree lights on when you are not home.  If you have a showing booked, turn the lights on just before the appointment and be sure to come back right after to turn them off.
• Consider the safety of small children that may be coming through your home.  Don’t leave out small decorations that could become a choking hazard.
• If Felix the cat has a bad habit of knocking your tree down on occasion, you might want to forego putting your tree up this year.  Murphy’s Law says that Felix will do this just when potential buyers are on their way over for a showing.

One last thing: once the holidays are over, make sure you take down your decorations soon afterwards.  As well, if the listing photos were taken while your home was decorated for the season, make sure that once mid January rolls around, new photos are taken.  Buyers that see a Christmas tree in your living room while viewing your property online in March will be tipped off pretty quickly to the fact that your home has been on the market for a while.

• Extend the trial period, to allow more borrowers to complete the paperwork.
• Develop publicly reported operational metrics, to hold servicers accountable for their performance.
• Possibly impose monetary penalties and sanctions on under-performing servicers.
• Engage HUD field-office staff and HUD-approved counseling organizations to distribute outreach tools.
• Engage the National Governors Association (NGA), National League of Cities (NLC) and National Association of Counties (NACo) in thousands of state, local, and county offices, to increase awareness of the program and assistance for borrowers.

Apparently the assumption is that borrowers aren’t completing the paperwork because it’s too complex or confusing. But what if they aren’t completing the paperwork because they’re reluctant to fall for another toxic mortgage?

High-risk, sub-prime option ARM loans contributed to this mess in the first place. To fix the problem the administration proposes to:

• Offer homeowners temporarily lower payments on loans they are unlikely to ever be able to repay.
• Force servicers to expedite applications under threat of public flogging, financial penalties and sanctions.
• Enlist private associations and government agencies at all levels to hawk the its program as being good for homeowners.

Maybe borrowers have figured out that this program is really only another exotic mortgage like one they fell prey to when they bought or refinanced the house that resulted in their current predicament. HAMP and the adminstration’s newly announced campaign isn’t digging borrowers out of a hole. It’s only digging them a new one, and delaying the inevitable.

The original hole was created with a clear downside and a theoretical upside:

• The downside: exotic financing, that qualified buyers for homes they clearly couldn’t afford by offering a low payment up front, despite unaffordably high payments in the future.
• The upside: the expectation that the appreciated value in the house will allow the borrower to refinance or sell at a profit before their payment skyrockets.

The new hole offered by HAMP is all the downside with none of the upside.

• The downside: exotic re-financing, by which they make payments affordable today, but leave homeowners in the same boat down the road when payments ratchet back up after 5 years.
• The bonus downside: there is no reasonable expectation that home values will appreciate anywhere near enough to get these loans above water before the 5 years is up, or before the homeowner runs into a real life event like job loss, divorce or job relocation – leaving them stuck in an upside down prison of debt.

What’s more, it’s not just bad for borrowers, it’s bad for everybody. Servicers and lenders simply delay their inevitable losses and suffer a lousy rate of return thanks to the artificially low payment until then. Everybody suffers as the economy limps along, as it is hard to justify a spending spree when you are upside down in your home by tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Even the stealth stimulus package disappears as people make their modified mortgage payments.

The housing problem may need an intervention, but not this intervention. Like offering drugs to an addict, repeating our past mistakes by putting people back into exotic mortgages is certainly not the cure. It’s time to go through withdrawal and kick the habit by addressing the real problem, negative equity.